00:00Broken Wings, the acclaimed West End musical based on legendary poet Khalil Gibran's novel,
00:10is coming to Dubai Opera on the 17th and 18th of January.
00:14Written by Middle Eastern duo Nadim Naaman and Dana Al Fardan, the show highlights the
00:19key issues of early 1900s, most of which are still relevant today, like wealth versus happiness,
00:24immigration and the importance of home, and the fight for gender equality.
00:29Nadim Naaman had his hands full writing this musical, but it turned out that his role in
00:34the production would encompass much more.
00:36Initially, I didn't want to play Gibran.
00:39I wanted to just be the writer.
00:42But our producer, Ali Mata, who is also a very dear friend now, but at the time he was
00:50just my producer, I only just met him, he was very blunt with me and he said, listen,
00:54I can't put on a show in the West End and sell it to Lebanese people when you are the
01:01only Lebanese West End musical guy at the moment.
01:06They're just going to say, sure, why is he not in it?
01:09So I thought about this for a while and then I was like, you know what, actually it does
01:12make sense because I'm a writer, Gibran's a writer, and in the framework of the story,
01:20the character of old Gibran is like the narrator.
01:23He is on his own the entire time.
01:27He is at his desk in New York in 1923, writing his memoir, writing his book, and then he
01:34is imagining the past.
01:37So everybody else in the show is from the past.
01:39So it kind of works because I'm detached from it all.
01:43So although I'm in it, I'm also in it as a kind of lonely figure and it didn't require
01:51quite so much rehearsal because I don't have to be, I can watch the rest of the show basically
01:56and watch it from a distance.
01:59It was a sort of gradual decision that was made and I was again, I was going to leave
02:04the show as an actor, but then we took the show to Béthédine and it was the most overwhelming
02:11week of my career, you know, to see the response in Lebanon and where this show matters more
02:16than anywhere else.
02:19It convinced me to stick with it a bit longer and it's a pleasure.
02:23Hanal Khareshi, who plays Gibran's love interest Salma, understands the responsibility of playing
02:28such an influential character in the poet's life.
02:30I think she's very strong.
02:34She gets stronger throughout the show.
02:35She has a lot of things happen to her.
02:39Her journey is very tragic actually.
02:44I think she starts off as this excited young girl and she has a lot of setbacks to overcome.
02:57She falls in love with Gibran and then the same day she's told that she's going to be
03:04sent to marry Mansour, who is the bishop's nephew, so she knows then she can never be
03:10with Gibran and then she sort of has to just find the strength to live with that and yeah,
03:22I would say she's very strong, empowering.
03:26It's felt quite empowering to play that kind of a character as well.
03:32She goes on to teach Gibran a lot about women and about the society that they were in, which
03:40he then uses later in life when he becomes who he is, well, who he became.
03:48She was sort of his muse almost and his inspiration behind a lot of his works, so yeah, it's a
03:55lot of responsibility to play that kind of character.
03:58Sofia Faurugi plays Mother in the show, a challenging role due to the character existing
04:03as a memory with no dialogue.
04:05Yeah, so it's been almost two years since I had my first involvement and over this time
04:11we've just seen the piece grow and evolve and we've evolved with it as well and we've
04:17found new things and new connections.
04:22Mother herself is more of a symbol in the piece.
04:25She's only seen as the memory of Gibran, so you only see her in scenes where it's with
04:30younger Gibran as he's a younger boy.
04:36So in that way it's been a little, not hard, but it's not through dialogue, you never hear
04:41her speak, it's only through the spirit of the earth in the second half.
04:46So in that respect it's quite, it was a bit of a challenge to find and represent her as
04:52a more well-rounded human being.
04:56I think how you see her in the show is she's very tender, but she's really a strong woman
05:02and she took her children across to America when they were very young and I don't know
05:11how much you know, but her husband was imprisoned for embezzlement.
05:16So it was a very, what's the word, it was a very risky thing to do I guess, to you know
05:25up and leave your home and to do it on your own, you know, in this day and age it's difficult
05:31but I think she just inspired him to be, you know, to look at women as being strong.
05:40Ben Cox, a musical director of the show has high hopes for Broken Wing's success in the
05:44region.
05:45I hope that they'll receive it really well, I mean I think that there's an absolute universality
05:51in what we're doing with Broken Wings, I think that if you enjoy music and if you enjoy storytelling
05:58and if you, I think particularly because over here Khalil Gibran is such a big figure, I
06:04think there'll be more of a response even to the response we had in London because he's
06:10a character that really is in everyone's hearts and the message that we're trying to tell
06:14through the show, Khalil Gibran's message, is one of equality and tolerance and unifying
06:23everything that we believe in and just getting on with each other.
06:27Broken Wings will only be in Dubai for two days on the 17th and 18th of January and will
06:32have three shows.
06:33Visit Dubai Opera's website for more details.
06:36Logan Fish for Gulf News.
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